Building a Library
March 6th, 2008 by Steve BowbrickWhat do I learn from Radio Three’s Building a Library? I learn that, though I’ve been building (randomly accumulating, really) my own library for twenty-odd years, I know practically nothing about classical music. I learn that the potential for variation in the delivery of a piece of music is essentially limitless and yet quite often undetectable to my ears.
I learn that there are people in the world (well, Piers Burton-Page Andrew McGregor, really) who know too much about classical music. I learn that I don’t own any of the really good classical recordings (that’s what you get for choosing albums from the bargain bin by the door) and I learn that one person’s passion for and understanding of a subject can be really awe-inspiring.
This edition is about Bartok’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Here’s the MP3. Building a Library now has a podcast and, amazingly, it really works - even though the copyright rules limit the length of clips in the MP3 so the podcast version is a fraction of the length of the broadcast version. Another real joy from your national broadcaster.
